Fuel Mileage

[Truckmike]

Hello All I have some questions , Ok I have a 2005 Explorer Eddie Bauer 4.0 v6
I recently put new tires same size 245 75 R15 BFGoodrich Rugged Terrain T/A,
New Magna flow cat back exhaust, New E3 spark plugs, new Plug wires, New fuel filter and a New K&N air filter, Now after all this work my Mileage went from Bad to worse, Can anyone give some advice on whats happening here? Also am wanting to install a level kit in front suspension, and was told that doing this is NOT a good idea due to doing this will wear out suspension parts more rapidly. Is this true or tech told me this because he did not want to do the job. I am looking for some help here. Hope to hear from someone soon. Thank you.

 

[Inspector13]

Did you clean the filter before putting it in?? Sometimes they come with too much oil on them and it needs to be cleaned off or by chance you might have put too much oil on it before you installed it. That oil could coat the inside of the MAF and make it read inaccurately. I pretty much have the same stuff done as yours and my mpg is actually pretty good.

No idea on the suspension as I have no plans to level or lift or drop mine.

 

[Ronin8002]

Hello All I have some questions , Ok I have a 2005 Explorer Eddie Bauer 4.0 v6
I recently put new tires same size 245 75 R15 BFGoodrich Rugged Terrain T/A,
New Magna flow cat back exhaust, New E3 spark plugs, new Plug wires, New fuel filter and a New K&N air filter, Now after all this work my Mileage went from Bad to worse, Can anyone give some advice on whats happening here? Also am wanting to install a level kit in front suspension, and was told that doing this is NOT a good idea due to doing this will wear out suspension parts more rapidly. Is this true or tech told me this because he did not want to do the job. I am looking for some help here. Hope to hear from someone soon. Thank you.

What MPG where you getting before and what are you getting now? Sounds like you covered the bases as far as maintenance type stuff. The loss of MPG may be due to the weather getting colder and/or winter blend fuel.

Your mechanic is correct; the "level kits" that use spacers on top of the struts will wear out suspension parts more quickly, how quickly depends on how tall the spacers are. I would stay around a 1.25" spacer or less. Also be aware that spacer height does not equal the lift height that you get out of it. Generally the lift height achieved is about 1.5 times the actual height of the spacer.

At any rate, you might want to look into the Rancho Quicklift strut assemblies instead of lift spacers. If you put them just in the front,it should level you out and you'll likely have fewer issues with suspension wear. Also they have a knob on them that you can use to tune the ride characteristics to your preference.